Applicants reject Ogun Govt’s extra N3.5m on housing scheme
By Rauf Oyewole
The Ogun State housing scheme applicants who are mostly retired civil servants have rejected the government’s decision asking them to pay additional N3.5 million after allocation of the 2-bedroom bungalow at the Prince Court Estate, Kobape Abeokuta.
The controversial housing scheme, according to them, was paid for about three years ago while about 200 of them who paid N5.5 million were yet to be given their house. The government had last month said that the inflation rate pushed the value of the property to N20 million leading to total rejection of the stance.
The Commissioner for Housing, Aknade Omoniyi said that the government has allocated houses to 110 applicants but asked the beneficiaries to pay an additional N3.5 million each.
Omoniyi in a letter to the applicants on Monday said that, “It should be reiterated that this allocation is subject to your fulfilment of a proviso indicating that all allottees of Phase 3 are to pay N3,500,000 each being a fair and subsidised contribution for provision of infrastructural facilities in the Estate, payable to OGSG Housing Development, Sterling Bank Account 0079381843.
“You are to kindly remit the same within 60 days from the date of this allocation to enable us (to) issue a final Allocation Letter, failing which this pre-allocation will be deemed invalid and subject to withdrawal,” he said.
While reacting on Thursday, Mr Olumuyiwa Oludaisi who spoke on behalf of others, urged the Governor, Dapo Abiodun led government to stop playing undue tricks with innocent applicants who paid the amount the government charged in 2020/2021 describing such acts as “inconsistent, irresponsible and fraudulent.”
The applicant alleged that there is a shift in position of the government not to allocate the phase lll houses to the 235 legitimate subscribers published earlier as qualified in 2022, but their ploy was to re-sell to the highest bidders after using their money to build the estate.
Oludaisi who thanked Governor Dapo for allocating 110 houses to applicants out of the 235 qualified applicants after three years of payment to the government coffers said the Governor should be magnanimous enough to allocate houses to the remaining subscribers and remove the said additional fee, as it was never part of the agreement.
He said the government must be responsible and stop the politics on innocent applicants as it is clear that those 110 applicants allocated houses would automatically lose it upon their failure to pay N3.5 million, while such lost allocation would be given to their cronies who are not qualified for such a low cost scheme.
